A colonial exhibition was a type of international exhibition that was held to boost trade. During the 1880s and beyond, colonial exhibitions had the additional aim of bolstering popular support for the various colonial empires during the New Imperialism period, which included the scramble for Africa.
The first colonial exhibition, in Victoria, Australia, in 1866, was the progeny of 25 years of similar exhibitions held in Melbourne, in which other colonies within the Australian continent participated.
Perhaps the most notable colonial exhibition was the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition, which lasted six months and sold 33 million tickets. Paris's Colonial Exhibition opened on 6 May 1931 on 110 hectares (272 acres) of the Bois de Vincennes. The exhibition included dozens of temporary museums and façades representing the various colonies of the European nations, as well as several permanent buildings. Among these were the Palais de la Porte Dorée, designed by architect Albert Laprode, which then housed the Musée permanent des Colonies, and serves today as the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration.
The French Communist Party held an anti-colonial counter-exhibition near the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, titled The Truth About the Colonies. The first section was dedicated to crimes during the colonial conquests, and quoted Albert Londres and André Gide's criticisms of forced labour. The second one contrasted the Soviet Union's "nationalities policy" with "imperialist colonialism".
Germany and Portugal also staged colonial exhibitions. Human zoos were featured in some of the exhibitions, such as the Parisian 1931 exhibition.
The Empire of Japan hosted colonial showcases in exhibitions within the Home Islands, but also held several full-scale expositions inside its colonies of Korea and Taiwan. These exhibitions had objectives comparable to their European counterparts, highlighting economic achievements and social progress under Japanese colonial rule to Japanese and colonial subjects alike.
Brussels was the venue for the last colonial exhibition: the Belgian Foire coloniale, held in 1948.
Colonial exhibitions Exhibitions that may be described as colonial exhibitions include the following. Name of exhibitionDateLocationCountryNotesSydney International Exhibition1879Sydney Internationale Koloniale en Uitvoerhandel Tentoonstelling 1883 Amsterdam Colonial and Indian Exhibition 1886 London Philippines Exposition 1887 Madrid Spain Exposition Universelle 1889Paris Exposition internationale et coloniale 1894 Lyon Exposição Insular e Colonial Portuguesa 1894 Porto Portugal Great Industrial Exposition 1896 Berlin Exposition nationale et coloniale 1896 Rouen Brussels International 1897 Brussels Exposition internationale et coloniale 1898 Rochefort Greater America Exposition 1899 Omaha Hanoi exhibition 1902 Hanoi United States, Colonial and International Exposition 1902 New York City 1906 Marseille Exposition Coloniale 1907 Paris Franco-British Exhibition 1908 London The exhibition celebrated the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 by the United Kingdom and France. Festival of Empire 1911 London Exposition Universelle 1910 Brussels International exhibition of marine and maritime hygiene 1914 Genoa Colonial Exhibition 1914 Semarang Joseon Industrial Exhibition 1915 Gyeongseong (Seoul) Japanese Korea International Exhibition of Rubber and Other Tropical Products 1921 London Exposition nationale coloniale 1922 Marseille British Empire Exhibition 1924 London Chosun Exhibition 1929 Gyeongseong (Seoul) Japanese Korea Exposition internationale coloniale, maritime et d'art flamand 1930 Antwerp Paris Colonial Exposition 1931 Paris This six-month exhibition attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense resources of France's colonial possessions. Exposição Colonial Portuguesa 1934 Porto Taiwan Exposition 1935 Taihoku (Taipei) Japanese Formosa Empire Exhibition 1936 Johannesburg Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne1937Paris Empire Exhibition 1938 Glasgow Deutsche Kolonial Ausstellung 1939 Dresden Exposição do Mundo Português 1940 Lisbon Held primarily as a celebration of the Estado Novo. One foreign nation, Brazil, participated in the exhibition. Foire coloniale 1948 Brussels
Notes
References
Bibliography Alexander C.T. Geppert, Fleeting Cities. Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe, Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
See also Colonialism Human zoo List of world's fairs Impact of Western European colonialism and colonisation
External links Exposition Coloniale of Paris 1931 photographs